Explosive Batting Performance Sees Unicorns Home Against Freedom

San Francisco Unicorns chased down an imposing Washington Freedom’s total in a rain-affected game at the Grand Prairie Stadium, finishing the Major League Cricket group stage in second spot and high on confidence after a win against the same team they face in the playoffs.

With both teams making several changes due to rest, injury, and rotation, Unicorns’ captain Corey Anderson put Freedom into bat in overcast conditions, having done the same in the previous victory against the Seattle Orcas.

In-form opening pair Travis Head and Steve Smith laid strong foundations for the Washington side, plundering regular boundaries against a new bowling attack which featured Matt Henry, Tajinder Singh, and recent signing Juanoy Drysdale.

Finishing the powerplay on 70 for no loss, the Australian partnership reached a century in the tenth over, before an Anderson slower ball caused a miscue from Smith to hole out to long-on.

Head hit out to the Unicorns’ captain two overs later, leaving Rachinda Ravindra and Andries Gous to maintain the momentum laid for them. Quickfire sixes followed for Freedom before a superb direct hit by Singh left Ravindra stranded taking a run that wasn’t there.

With drizzle turning to a steady downpour, the umpires made the call to bring the teams in after 15.3 overs, leaving the Freedom on what looked to be an above-par total of 174/3. With the rain ending an hour later, the Unicorns returned with a DLS target of 177 off 14 overs.

Finn Allen, the Unicorns’ form batsman, and the returning Jake Fraser-McGurk, opened to spin bowler Akeal Hosein knowing that only strong partnerships and regular boundaries would keep them in the game. Disaster struck first ball though, with Allen clean bowled, leaving the Unicorns immediately chasing the game.

Sanjay Krishnamurthi set his stall out with a six second ball, followed by a couple of fours to end the over for Fraser-McGurk to keep the team on the required rate. The pair exchanged strike and boundaries until the fifth over when the Australian edged behind to Andrew Tye for 18 off 9.

With the required rate picking up, Josh Inglis and Krishnamurthi started to wrestle the game back from the Freedom in the middle overs. Four sixes from five balls in the ninth over for Inglis put the Unicorns on the front foot for arguably the first time in the match, leaving them on 110/2, requiring 67 to win from the remaining 30 balls.

Back-to-back sixes followed for Inglis, before Mukhtar Ahmed made amends for an earlier drop to catch the wicketkeeper-batsman at deep cover for 45 off 17, with all but five of his runs coming from boundaries.

Sherfane Rutherford was caught and bowled in the same over for a duck, but the Unicorns, led ably by Krishnamurthi and some rapid scoring from Hassan Khan, kept up the pace, leaving just three required from the last over.

Fittingly, Krishnamurthi finished the game off with two balls to spare, leaving him unbeaten on 79 off 42, with Khan on 32 from just 11. The Unicorns had once again come back from the brink to claim the bragging rights against the same team they face in the Challenger later in the week.

Brief Scores: San Francisco Unicorns, 177/4 (Sanjay Krishnamurthi*, 79; Andrew Tye, 3/41) beat Washington Freedom, 174/3 (Steve Smith, 56; Travis Head, 56) by 6 wickets (DLS method)